Now more than ever, people need access to high-quality, evidence-based information about their sexual health – including pregnancy, birth control, abortion, and more. And far too often, the content that everyone, but especially young people, stumble upon contains health misinformation and outright lies. Many are actively seeking answers to their questions through social media, and even using platforms, like TikTok, as search engines. That’s why our CEO, Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley, who is a practicing OB GYN and abortion provider, launched #AskDrRaegan across social media to answer frequently asked questions from real people. Dr. Raegan reaches folks where they already are using language tailored for everyone to easily understand.
Findings from our 2022 Thanks, Birth Control Survey indicate that four in 10 young people received information about birth control from social media in the prior year, highlighting the need for high-quality facts about sexual health and reproductive health on social media. #AskDrRaegan connects young people with evidence-based answers and information they can understand and trust. Our series host, Dr. Raegan is not just an active health care provider, but also serves as a top advocate for policies that improve reproductive well-being outcomes. On Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Dr. Raegan answers people's burning questions about sexual health and directs them to content from our trusted digital resources, Bedsider.org and AbortionFinder.org. The series has reached users in a variety of ways. On Twitter, Dr. Raegan replies to questions live and provides links to valuable health care resources. Through her videos, she covers frequently asked questions and monitors comments for follow-up inquiries. Navigating the process of addressing health-related questions without offering direct medical advice can be challenging. However, Dr. Raegan's extensive years of experience enable her to assess each situation in real-time and provide the most useful and relevant response possible. Dr. Raegan has also utilized this series to provide reassurance to the public during periods of changes in reproductive health policy. For example, when news broke about the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the impending availability of an over-the-counter birth control pill, Dr. Raegan shared factual information about each circumstance. Dr. Raegan has established herself as the go-to resource for health education, capable of reaching her audience in the places and platforms they typically seek information.
During the entry period, our team gathered real questions from Twitter, to which Dr. Reagan provided answers to more than 100 of them. After responding to people's questions, she frequently received replies expressing gratitude for her concern and for taking the time to share accurate information. The series’s video content includes a library of Birth Control Basics on YouTube, a collection of 17 detailed overviews of FDA-approved birth control options, along with over 30 short-form videos for publication across Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, all of which answer a frequently asked question. To date, the #AskDrRaegan hashtag on TikTok has 2.6 million views and tens of thousands of engagements. Viewers have also posed follow-up questions that we have answered with the help from our team of subject matter experts. To ensure that we are producing the right content, in the right way, we work with young people to flag the questions that they and their peers would be most interested to see answered. By paying attention to the questions young people actually want answers to, Dr. Raegan’s videos resonate with the audience. Beyond her work on social media, Dr. Raegan’s expertise has also been featured in dozens of media outlets over the last year, including BET, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, TIME, the Washington Post, and more.
